Contemporary Liturgies

Magic Statistics guy Scott Gilbreath talks about a lot more than numbers on his blog, and I like his eclectic style. Today he compares two forms of church liturgy. You may not get his point unless you've been in a contemporary style church.

Our church is fairly contemporary, but it's not stuck in a rut; the order of things can get moved around some. It's not like one we went to years ago when we lived in Big Bear Lake, California. The church was of a "denomination" known for non-traditional worship.

We did everything the same there, though, week after week. Songs, prayer, and sermon. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, by the way. But one day I mentioned to the worship leader, Kevin, that it might be nice to vary things a bit. I ran sound for all the services, so I had a close working relationship with him.

I suggested that, for example, we could try a pause in the middle of the song set to read a Psalm. Kevin said, "I don't know man, that's pretty far out." You probably think he said it with a wry smile. You would be wrong. It really was too far out for him, and he never risked it.

Now you probably think I'm making this up.

Some regularity is a good thing in worship services; "liturgy" in Scott Gilbreath's sense is not all bad, and I don't think he was saying that it is. It gives the participants a point of reference, a sense of direction and even comfort. The point is, it's not what kind of "liturgy" we use at church, it's whether we're paying attention to the Lord, and paying attention to good principles of communication and congregational involvement. A little variety is okay, and the Bible is not too "far out" to use in worship.

Posted: Sat - November 5, 2005 at 05:30 PM |

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Contemporary Liturgies

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson